


Black and Purple Roses

by tatersalad5001



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: (akiza was written bad and we're here to work on that), (no one in this series is straight), (the fix-it applies to akiza), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Relationships, Fix-It, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 12:02:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20506703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatersalad5001/pseuds/tatersalad5001
Summary: “Figure yourself out, huh?” Yusei nodded. “I’ve certainly been there. Have you found any answers?”“I don’t think I was ever attracted to you."





	Black and Purple Roses

True friendship is stronger than the distance between.

They saved the world together, in New Domino City. Life after that separated them; Yusei stayed in the city to help change the future. To change destiny and save lives. Akiza was saving lives in a different way. After spending so long lashing out and hurting people, she was trying to turn it around. Now a doctor, she spent her time helping people, healing them. Every patient she cared for and treated like a friend.

They were both saving lives, and if it weren’t for Yusei, Akiza wouldn’t have been able to do any of it. Yusei wasn’t the only person who taught her how to be a friend, but she’d always be grateful that he was the first person to help her out of the Arcadia Movement.

Akiza’s work as a doctor took her away from New Domino City. They saw little of each other but spoke often. And of course, Akiza didn’t work every day of her life. Occasionally she made the visit back to New Domino City. Yusei always had his place open for guests, and Akiza couldn’t stay away from her friends forever.

And now was one of those times, one of those visits. Akiza had a long weekend ahead of her, and was spending a few days off in New Domino City.

Yusei was just as exhausted from work as she was. They didn’t need to go out anywhere to hang out and enjoy each other’s company. They stayed in, bowls of popcorn in hand and a movie playing in the background as they talked and caught up with each other.

“You know, I’ve been thinking a lot lately,” Akiza said between handfuls of popcorn. “About the way I was when we hadn’t known each other for very long.”

“What about it?” Yusei asked. It was a weird time, between Akiza recovering from the past and all the world saving they needed to do, not to mention how much society changed in a short time back then. There was a lot to think about from then.

“About me. Or, the way I acted around you, anyway,” Akiza clarified.

“Hmm.” Yusei thought it over for a second. “You had a crush on me back then.”

Akiza winced. “Right. Of course, it never would’ve worked out, you’ve obviously never been attracted to girls, and I got over it a long time ago. But it’s been on my mind. I’ve been trying to figure it out, I guess.”

“Figure yourself out, huh?” Yusei nodded. “I’ve certainly been there. Have you found any answers?”

“I don’t think I was ever attracted to you. Definitely not in the way I thought I was, at the very least. I spent a lot of time on the outskirts of society, but even I was aware of how society expects guys and girls to fall in love. I was in a bad place, and you were the first actual friend I had in a really long time, so I think I felt like it had to be more than that. But, I don’t think it really was. I think I was grateful for everything you’d done for me, and I wanted our friendship to continue. I wasn’t attracted to you in any other way, though.”

“Well, if it helps, I wasn’t attracted to you like that, either. Which you probably already figured out. But I didn’t want to lose your friendship, either. I knew you still needed help adjusting to a regular life, and I wanted to help you do that. I knew you were really a good person, deep down. But I never felt anything different than friendship towards you.”

Akiza laughed. “I’m glad we were on the same page, even if it’s not the page I thought it was back then. I much prefer this, honestly. Trying to force myself to feel something else all the time was actually frustrating.”

Yusei frowned. “Have you ever felt that kind of attraction towards anyone?”

“Towards anyone...” Akiza repeated. “There have been other times I thought I was. Times I forced myself to feel that way, or times where it was others who wanted me to feel that, but... I don’t think I’ve ever really felt that attraction. It takes a lot of effort just to think that I do, which I’m guessing isn’t normal.”

“You’d be correct on that. Do you think you might be asexual, then?”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a lack of sexual attraction, towards anyone. You just don’t experience it at all. Or some people only rarely experience it, or only experience it in certain conditions. Some people are demisexual; they’re only attracted to people they’ve formed a close bond with. It’s not that asexual people don’t want sex or don’t have sex. Some do and some don’t; you can put me in the latter category. All it is is not feeling sexual attraction.”

“There’s a word for that?” Akiza leaned forward. “Other people are like that, too?”

Yusei nodded, a smile forming on his face. “If you’re ace, don’t worry, there’s plenty of other ace people out there, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You don’t have to try to force yourself to be something else.”

“That’s good. I think I’ve had enough of that for one lifetime.” Akiza was smiling, too, now. “But, you’ve been dating Crow and Jack for years, right? And you’re still ace?”

“Right. You don’t need attraction to have a relationship,” Yusei told her. “But it can be more complicated than that. I’m attracted to Jack and Crow, but only romantically, not sexually. The split attraction model doesn’t work for everyone, of course, and there’s no need to force it on people who don’t need it. There’s people who are aromantic, and don’t experience romantic attraction, and many people who are asexual are also aromantic, and that’s perfectly fine. But sexual and romantic attraction don’t line up that way for everyone, and that’s valid, too. I’m a homoromantic ace, I’m only attracted to men romantically. I love Crow and Jack, but I have no desire to have sex with them. And we’re open with each other and it works out fine. We’re all pretty happy with our relationship. So you can be ace and be attracted to men, or to women. Or maybe gender isn’t a factor; you can be attracted to people regardless of it, or not be attracted to people at all. It’s all personal to you, and it’s something for you to figure out about yourself. No one can tell you what you have to be, and if they try to, they’re wrong.”

“It’ll take a lot of time to figure that out for myself, that’s for sure. It took me long enough to realize I was forcing my attraction in the first place,” Akiza told him. “But at the very least, I think I’ve had enough of relationships with men. No offense.”

Yusei snorted. “None taken. We’re both gay, so neither of us are missing out. But hey, no matter what you decide... even if you think you’re ace now but change your mind later, or you don’t think you are but later decide you are, and no matter who you’re attracted to... No matter what, I support you. And if you ever want to talk about any of it, I’m here for you. If you ever need help figuring something out or you just need support or solidarity, I’ve got your back.”

Akiza reached over to steal some popcorn from Yusei. “Thank you. And the same goes for you, too.”

‘Just friends’ wasn’t a bad thing. Friendship is a beautiful, powerful force, and Akiza treasured her friendship with Yusei.

Having something new in common with him was exciting, and discovering herself was an adventure she was excited to take on.

**Author's Note:**

> the fix-it here applies to akiza, girl was written bad, they did her bad, she could've spent so much more time building up her friendships with other people and learning about what friendship really is and instead they kept trying to make her be straight for yusei and boy, neither yusei nor akiza are straight! no one in yugioh is straight! what a nightmare
> 
> yusei/jack/crow will probably always be canon in everything 5ds i always write sorry
> 
> yusei's always been homoromantic ace and that will never change to me but ace akiza is a recent hot take and a good take and my brain was like, let's breathe words into that!! akiza prob has either aro ace or ace lesbian energy to me, or maybe bi ace but men are still cancelled. i'm super tired and don't really have the energy to write but this was basically a 0 energy write for me since im literally just writing about me so it worked out somehow. gonna go back to, resting.
> 
> akiza def already knew that yusei was ace she just wasn't super clear on what that meant is all. regardless, she always supported him for who he was and he always supported her too this is a solidarity zone.
> 
> hey! your local panromantic ace here. i'm used to tungle.hell and i'm used to this being a Hot Topic on tungle, and i'm really sick of my identity being a discourse topic!! so just in case lemme cover my bases. aces are lgbt no matter what. aces are queer no matter what. same with aromantic people. there's nothing inherently adult about being ace, and being not-straight, this is rated T because sex itself is a conversation topic, and that's all (also i'm gonna swear in five seconds, more reason to rate it T). there's nothing wrong with being ace. ace people don't hate people who aren't ace. stop trying to kick ace people out of queer spaces. uh. i think i've covered any possible outrage here. and i won't stand for any of that! i am not a discourse topic! all your discourse will be super ignored, so keep it out of my goddamn comments! all this might not have been necessary but im too used to tungle dot hell and seeing the discourse like, weekly. please, just, this is a queer positivity zone thanks that is all from your local panromantic asexual
> 
> if you're ever looking for me you can find me on tumblr @ datanamines hope yall enjoyed the content. thanks for reading!!


End file.
